Mark 1:14-20
After John the Baptizer was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Here we are, finally, settled into Mark’s gospel account – for a little while, at least. The last couple of readings we heard came from John, so understand that there will be some shifting around of order and time, but the story stays basically the same.
This gospel was written somewhere around the year 70 in what was most likely an early Christ-community on the northern border of Galilee. Some of this info was probably previously written down in the Q Source document, which of course we don’t have and can only infer from references elsewhere, but whereas Q was apparently a collection of sayings, Mark’s gospel is the first narrative gospel – the first to tell the story of Jesus. Matthew’s version, the second gospel, wasn’t written until 10 or 20 years after Mark’s.
We pick up the story here when John the Baptist has been imprisoned, an imprisonment from which he would not be released alive. Jesus begins walking around Galilee preaching a message that has many of the same points John had been preaching – Repent and believe!
As we heard from our reading today, as Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets and called, “Come, follow me,” and at once they left their nets and followed him.
Later, he saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat and followed him.
Just like that..... No questions asked, no discussing among themselves, no wondering “why?” They apparently simply dropped what they were doing and walked away from their livelihoods, from the only life they’d ever known, even from their families to follow a man they may never have seen before, or, at best, someone they had heard speak once or twice.
The four men weren’t looking for Jesus. They were at work, just like millions of people every day all over the world. Rather than them finding Jesus, as it turns out, it was Jesus who found them.
He found them where they were and he called them to something different. And that something different changed their lives forever. They didn’t just go back to work. They became new people. That’s how it works. I’m pretty sure that even if we think that we are setting out to find Jesus it is only because Jesus has already called out to us first.
What does it feel like to be called by Jesus? Unlike the four fisherfolk in today’s reading, I think most of us today start out with denial – who, me? Why me? But it shouldn’t be that hard. Jesus didn’t tell the four (and those who would come after them) to go out and save the world. He just said, follow me. We follow him and we learn his ways. And then we begin thinking and acting in those same ways.
We have the basic outline already, so we start to feed the hungry. We welcome the strangers. We learn to love even the unlovable, even (maybe especially) when we ourselves are the unlovable. And then we do it again, and again, and again until it becomes our way of doing and being.
Being called by Jesus is, after all, not the end-point of our believer’s journey – it is the starting point. We start out simply following Jesus until one day we find ourselves actually changing the world, or at least a small part of it – but it’s all of our small parts together that make up this world.
How were we called? And, how have we answered?
This gospel was written somewhere around the year 70 in what was most likely an early Christ-community on the northern border of Galilee. Some of this info was probably previously written down in the Q Source document, which of course we don’t have and can only infer from references elsewhere, but whereas Q was apparently a collection of sayings, Mark’s gospel is the first narrative gospel – the first to tell the story of Jesus. Matthew’s version, the second gospel, wasn’t written until 10 or 20 years after Mark’s.
We pick up the story here when John the Baptist has been imprisoned, an imprisonment from which he would not be released alive. Jesus begins walking around Galilee preaching a message that has many of the same points John had been preaching – Repent and believe!
As we heard from our reading today, as Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets and called, “Come, follow me,” and at once they left their nets and followed him.
Later, he saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat and followed him.
Just like that..... No questions asked, no discussing among themselves, no wondering “why?” They apparently simply dropped what they were doing and walked away from their livelihoods, from the only life they’d ever known, even from their families to follow a man they may never have seen before, or, at best, someone they had heard speak once or twice.
The four men weren’t looking for Jesus. They were at work, just like millions of people every day all over the world. Rather than them finding Jesus, as it turns out, it was Jesus who found them.
He found them where they were and he called them to something different. And that something different changed their lives forever. They didn’t just go back to work. They became new people. That’s how it works. I’m pretty sure that even if we think that we are setting out to find Jesus it is only because Jesus has already called out to us first.
What does it feel like to be called by Jesus? Unlike the four fisherfolk in today’s reading, I think most of us today start out with denial – who, me? Why me? But it shouldn’t be that hard. Jesus didn’t tell the four (and those who would come after them) to go out and save the world. He just said, follow me. We follow him and we learn his ways. And then we begin thinking and acting in those same ways.
We have the basic outline already, so we start to feed the hungry. We welcome the strangers. We learn to love even the unlovable, even (maybe especially) when we ourselves are the unlovable. And then we do it again, and again, and again until it becomes our way of doing and being.
Being called by Jesus is, after all, not the end-point of our believer’s journey – it is the starting point. We start out simply following Jesus until one day we find ourselves actually changing the world, or at least a small part of it – but it’s all of our small parts together that make up this world.
How were we called? And, how have we answered?
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